This kustomize component enables M2M (Machine-to-Machine) authentication in Kubernetes, using Istio and the RequestAuthentication object. It configures Istio to trust JWTs (JSON Web Tokens) in Authorization Bearer tokens when the JWT issuer matches the one in RequestAuthentication. The default setup uses Kubernetes' self-served OIDC issuer with self-signed certificates.

In Kubernetes clusters managed by platform providers, the OIDC issuer is usually managed by the provider and served behind publicly trusted certificates. In these cases, it's advisable to use the platform-managed Kubernetes OIDC issuer in the RequestAuthentication for seamless integration and authentication compliance with the platform's security standards.